Making use of Boston’s smaller TPEs to boost its bench rotation

The Celtics have $5 and $2.6 traded-player exceptions to use as well; what options make sense to fill them?

The Boston Celtics have the biggest traded-player exception (TPE) in league history to work with to fortify their team ahead of the Mar. 25 trade deadline in their efforts to make a run at a title after sign-and-trading Gordon Hayward to the Charlotte Hornets in the offseason.

But, they don’t necessarily need to use all of the $28.5 million exception — or even any of it this season to accomplish those goals. In fact, they couldn’t use all of it even if they wanted to after the sign-and-trade triggered a hard cap for the season, though they do have about $22 million to play with.

If they did use a sizeable part, they’ll jump even further into the luxury tax, exacerbated by the ever-more punitive repeater tax structure, making fielding a contender increasingly onerous.